Senior cop on cocaine finds: Call police if you have info

The head of the police Eastern Division has echoed the National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds' warning against interfering with illegal drugs found in public and suggested people should immediately contact the police.

"We continue to call on residents – or anyone – to notify the police if they see or know anything," Snr Supt Ryan Khan told Newsday on Friday.

No one has been held in connection with the massive amount of cocaine that recently washed ashore on the east coast of Trinidad, but Khan said investigations are ongoing. He added that the police continue to use intelligence to find out more about the cocaine, like its origins and destination.

Khan added, "We have no further find since then. At this stage, there are no leads."

On August 23, Mayaro CID officers got a tip-off and went to the BP compound at Isthmus Road in Guayaguayare, where they found 36 packets of cocaine wrapped in watertight tape with the word "Look."

The illegal drug had a total weight of 46 kilogrammes and an estimated street value of $21,373,440.

The origins of the cocaine are yet to be confirmed, but it is believed to be part of a shipment of illegal drugs, possibly from South America, that was offloaded in the Atlantic and washed ashore.

After the opening ceremony of a Caricom conference on the Human Impacts of Autonomous Weapons at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain earlier in the week, Hinds told reporters if he, as a person, found cocaine on a beach or anywhere, his first, instinctive reaction would be to go far from it and to call the first police officer he saw.

"But if I am as foolish and as adven­turous as some of us can be, and take it up and decide I can profit from its presence and my possession of it, then I now become part of the issue and will gain the attention of the police – and perhaps also those who might have some other concern for the package," Hinds said.

Days before the find, there were reports of packages washed ashore in other areas along the coast. It caused a rift over ownership, with frightened residents expressing concerns about possible deadly repercussions.

The fallout from the missing drug shipment has also been linked to several crimes, including a shooting in Guayguayare as well as the August 21 kidnapping and murder of farmer Stefan Juri at Fishing Pond in Sangre Grande. Homicide Bureau of Investigations (Region II) and Eastern Division police discovered Juri's body with gunshot wounds in a car at Seecharan Road.

Police believe Juri was killed over packages of cocaine he collected after they washed ashore at Flemming Beach in Fishing Pond on August 16.

Acting Cpl Emmanuel of the Homicide Bureau later charged Kelvin "Fish" Torres, 35, of Graham Trace, Ojoe Road in Sangre Grande, with Juri's murder as well as gun-related offences.

The matter is pending in the Sangre Grande Magistrates' Court.

Anyone with information can call the police at 555, 999 or the nearest police station, or call Crime Stoppers at 800-TIPS (8477).